Review of Scale Plans No. 17Avia S-199

HISTORY:The Avia S-199 was a propeller-driven fighter aircraftbuilt after World War IIby the two aircraft factories in Czechoslovakia: one of them officially called závod Avia(AviaPlant) (1946–48) and závod Avia-Jiřího Dimitrova (Avia-George Dimitroff-Plant, 1948–49) in Čakovice near Prague, as a post-war corporative part of theAutomobilové závody, n.p.[Automotive Works, National Corp.], and the other one called závod Vysočany (Vysočany Plant, 1948–49) in Prague, as a corporative part of Letecké závody, n.p.[Aviation Works, National Corp.] It was constructed with parts and plans left over from Luftwaffeaircraft production that had taken place under the country's German occupation during the war. Despite the aircraft's numerous problems and unpopularity with its pilots, it achieved fame as the first fighter obtained by the Israeli Air Force, for use during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Czechoslovak pilots nicknamedit Mezek ("Mule"), while in Israelit was officially known as the Sakeen ("knife" in Hebrew). In practice, the aircraft was more often called Messerschmittor Messer (which also means "knife", in GermanandYiddish).THE PLAN SET:This set of scale plans comes in soft-cover that is dark green with a light green line drawing of a Yak-3. There is a illustration of MMP’s book cover for their book titled “ Mezek a Turbina, Messerschmitts in Czechoslovakia” White Series no. 9126, by Bohumir Kudlicka.The cover of this set holds 6 sheets of line drawings that are 8 ½” x 17” folded in the center to fit the cover and printed on both sides.Plan no. 1 is to 1/72nd scale. It has a 7-view line drawing of the S-199 with illustrations of the fuselage bulkheads included.Plan no. 2 (on the other side of this sheet) is to 1/72nd scale and shows a 4-view of the S-199 model 3 and a 2-view of the S-199 Sakeen and another 2-view of the CS-199 two-seater and a profile of it with a long tail-wheel.Plan no. 3 is to 1/48th scale and has a 2-view of the S-199 and a profile of it with a 300 liter fuel tank.Plan no. 4 (on the other side of this sheet) is to 1/48th scale and has 4 more views of the S-199.Plan no. 5 is to 1/48th scale and has a 4-view of the S-199 model 3.Plan no. 6 (on the other side of this sheet) is to 1/48th scale and has a 3-view of the S-199 Sakeen, one profile of it without the propeller spinner and one profile of it with a non-standard engine cowling.Plan no. 7 has a 1/32nd 3-view of the S-199 model 3.Plan no. 8 (on the other side of the sheet) has a 1/32nd top view.of the S-199 model 3.Plan no. 9 is to 1/32nd scale and shows a bottom view of the S-199 model 3Plan no. 10 (on the other side of the sheet) has a 1/32nd scale 3-view of the CS-199 2-seat version.Plan no. 11 has a 1/32nd scale top view of the CS-199.lan no. 12 (on the other siee of the sheet) finishes the set of plans with a 1/32nd scale 2-view of the S-199 Sakeen, and a profile of it with a non-standard engine cowling.This is another neat set of aircraft plans by MMP. It will be of great interest to aircraft modelers and aircraft historians as well. Highly recommended.I want to thank Dr. Roger Wallsgrove, Editor in Chief of Mushroom Model Publications and the folks at Casemate that sent me this review sample.Casemate is the N.American distributor for MMP in Pennsylvania. MMP books can be seen all listed on their site at: